2016 Ride Crews

Paisley, I remember being told which dot to stand on for Blue Streak also. I remember counting those ahead of us to determine which dot we would have and then letting people pass you so you could sit further back or more in front.

I also remember them checking lap bars as the train was moving.

You could choose your dot as it was first come first served. But if you were in group twelve (or eleven, or ten, or...) you were out of luck and took what was left.
I also remember counting ahead and jockeying for position. And if you stopped on the last turn to the final approach you had the best chance of being first for your ride. (Or sometimes last...) And the occasional single riders would be there to screw up your careful calculations.
There were times when we'd be grouchy because we were clearly in the fifth or sixth group then, like a miracle, those ahead of us were scaredy cats and went for the middle leaving dot 1 for us. Yes!

I'll join the ranks of those who pine for the days of buzz bars, no seat belts, and separate load/unload on the platform. The crew, always men, made it their business to hustle that train out before the next one showed up. The brake guy, if he was good, could glide that train off the brake run into the unload area just perfectly. And usually by then the new riders were on their way up the lift.

Ahhhhh.... memories.....

We were there yesterday (7/20), and the Valravyn crews were loading at around 65. I also noticed people in the regular lines were allowed to wait for the first row. I was impressed with the crew.

RCMAC said:
You could choose your dot as it was first come first served. But if you were in group twelve (or eleven, or ten, or...) you were out of luck and took what was left.
I also remember counting ahead and jockeying for position. And if you stopped on the last turn to the final approach you had the best chance of being first for your ride. (Or sometimes last...) And the occasional single riders would be there to screw up your careful calculations.
There were times when we'd be grouchy because we were clearly in the fifth or sixth group then, like a miracle, those ahead of us were scaredy cats and went for the middle leaving dot 1 for us. Yes!

I'll join the ranks of those who pine for the days of buzz bars, no seat belts, and separate load/unload on the platform. The crew, always men, made it their business to hustle that train out before the next one showed up. The brake guy, if he was good, could glide that train off the brake run into the unload area just perfectly. And usually by then the new riders were on their way up the lift.

Ahhhhh.... memories.....

The old trains on Blue Streak had seat belts. I know this because I always made it a point to unbuckle after leaving the station.
I still do this when riding Blue Streak now, but the airtime you used to get is gone thanks to the lap bar.

I don't know what year they were added, but I can remember riding Blue Streak without seat belts. Sometimes you just jumped into a very slow moving train to load and the op checked the bars as you rolled by. That's how they use to run 3 trains. RCMAC must be an old timer like me. Do you remember there was a bell that went off when a train reached the turnaround?

My first ride on Blue Streak was in 1966 and there were no seat belts. When I worked at CP in the 70's there were no seat belts.
Hell, seat belts weren't even mandatory on automobiles until 1968.

I'm thinking back to mid 80s, early 90s. No bell, and I'm 99% sure they stopped the train first. This is when the waiting area was under the canopy on the platform. I think the same time the waiting was changed to the back of the platform (1994??) was when the lap bars were changed.

JK125 said:

I don't know what year they were added, but I can remember riding Blue Streak without seat belts. Sometimes you just jumped into a very slow moving train to load and the op checked the bars as you rolled by. That's how they use to run 3 trains. RCMAC must be an old timer like me. Do you remember there was a bell that went off when a train reached the turnaround?

When seat belts were first added to Blue Streak the ride ops said they were optional, I never wore mine. Apparently they were just put in for nervous people who felt more comfortable with a seat belt.

Blue Streak never had three trains, it always ran with the two trains that are currently in use. I remember the bell also. Blue Streak operation was an amazing sight back in the day, they way they ran that ride gave it outstanding capacity.

When Blue Streak was new it was brown, unpainted, and the trains were red. As a youngster I thought it was very strange, there was nothing blue about it.

I remember the bell, too, and the muscular young men pulling those giant levers to brake the train :-)

Mac, where were you when I was writing my article on Cedar Point for ACE's RollerCoaster magazine? That brown / unpainted / red bit would have been a great addition. The ride was named after Sandusky High School's football team, so maybe it took them a few seasons to get around to painting it blue :-)

Pete said:Blue Streak never had three trains, it always ran with the two trains that are currently in use.

Are you sure about that? Why do I remember getting stacked on the break run with a train in the unload station and a train in the load station?

Pete said:Blue Streak never had three trains, it always ran with the two trains that are currently in use.

Altor said. Are you sure about that? Why do I remember getting stacked on the break run with a train in the unload station and a train in the load station?

That's what I was remembering also. But I could be wrong. I tried to so some research from 1964 but haven't found anything that mentioned the number of trains.

What you guys are saying would be impossible. The control system, which was a simple relay logic system, only had the capacity for two trains.There could never be a train in both load and unload. When the bell rang the train in load had to leave. If it was late, the incoming train would cause a setup and it would stop on the brake run outside of unload.

In spite of the manual brake levers, the ride did have a very simple and by today's standards, primitive safety system. If you studied the brake run outside of the station would would see a manual brake lever, located next to the unload brake lever, that controlled the brake run outside of the station. That lever had notches where the trim force could be set by holding the lever in the desired position. In addition to that, there were also a couple of pneumatic cylinders that applied full braking should a setup occur.

Never three. Ever.

For all the great crews I've seen I've also seen the Gemini crew. One worker was flipping off the girl in the red control booth, another girl watching fast lane kept complaining and asking another If it was time to go home yet. I've worked sucky shifts before so I know the feeling, but if the wrong people see or hear that behavior at cp it wouldn't be good.

^I suppose it just depends on when you are at a certain ride. Perhaps you were there later in the day when heat and burnout set in. Perhaps there are some crew members that need a reminder about proper conduct around patrons. We have usually been at Gemini around 11:20am or so and have found lively, engaging, happy appearing crew members, and it has not always been the same individuals each time. They open the blue train at 11:30, so after one ride on red we get back on for a "race". The blue has opened like clockwork each time, maybe 15 visits so far. Keep up the good work Gemini crew.